Carlisle Vs Swindon Town Official Matchday Thread

[LucienSanchez]

From the highlights, it looked like Alan Mac (who has been way below par recently) hit a shoddy clearance to a Carlisle striker... the radio attributed that to Ward yesterday? Wes should have saved the second (and he looks less assured than normal too).

[tj2002]

Interesting 8 second interview from Di Canio on the Beeb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19613779#asset

[joteddyred]

Interesting point about Alan Mac being below par.  In fact I'd go so far to say he's been pretty crap for a few games now.  Possible reasons:

1.  Chopping and changing of defensive partner?
2.  Just going through a bad spell?
3.  He's struggling with captaining the side at the same time?
4.  He's actually not as good as a defender as we thought and struggling to step up to better strikers in League 1?
5.  Hes the bad influence in the dressing room?

What do people think?

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Interesting point about Alan Mac being below par.  In fact I'd go so far to say he's been pretty crap for a few games now.  Possible reasons:

1.  Chopping and changing of defensive partner?
2.  Just going through a bad spell?
3.  He's struggling with captaining the side at the same time?
4.  He's actually not as good as a defender as we thought and struggling to step up to better strikers in League 1?
5.  Hes the bad influence in the dressing room?

What do people think?

1-4 all possible.

Definitely not 5.

[BruceChatwin]

From the highlights, it looked like Alan Mac (who has been way below par recently) hit a shoddy clearance to a Carlisle striker... the radio attributed that to Ward yesterday? Wes should have saved the second (and he looks less assured than normal too).

I saw this the same way too after highlights last night. No coincidence that a dip in form has coincided with a simultaneous dip in form from these two. They anchor the defence and when they play badly the whole team looks disjointed and nervous. A bit too early to judge Wes perhaps but Mcormack is definitely the worry for me. Looks shaky and hasn't been setting play going like he used to (just bypassed by Wes with long kicks). Can someone who went give an update on how Ward looked yesterday? An improvement on Oxford?

[reeves4england]

I think it was Azza who complained that Rooney was starting on the wing and has since suggested that he swap with Williams. That's exactly what happened yesterday, as has been made abundantly clear in this thread - Williams played wide left and Rooney partnered Benson.

Interesting point about Alan Mac being below par.  In fact I'd go so far to say he's been pretty crap for a few games now.  Possible reasons:

1.  Chopping and changing of defensive partner?
2.  Just going through a bad spell?
3.  He's struggling with captaining the side at the same time?
4.  He's actually not as good as a defender as we thought and struggling to step up to better strikers in League 1?
5.  Hes the bad influence in the dressing room?

What do people think?

1-2 seem the most likely, 3 is possible but unlikely in my opinion - he seemed like a leader last eyar so not sure why anything would have changed in that sense. 4 I doubt highly - we rate him highly because he looked a cut above last year, whether playing Barnet, Huddersfield or Wigan. 5, just no.

As for the Ward debate I didn't see him at Oxford but I'd give his performance at Carlisle 6/10. He wasn't amazing, but Jervis was a real handful and he did well under the circumstances. I think the problem is more that the team just weren't linking up all that well. That said, it was much better than recent games.

[BruceChatwin]

Interesting point about Alan Mac being below par.  In fact I'd go so far to say he's been pretty crap for a few games now.  Possible reasons:

1.  Chopping and changing of defensive partner?
2.  Just going through a bad spell?
3.  He's struggling with captaining the side at the same time?
4.  He's actually not as good as a defender as we thought and struggling to step up to better strikers in League 1?
5.  Hes the bad influence in the dressing room?

What do people think?

Definitely not 5. Don't think he's been up against any real class strikers yet (Hartlepool? Leyton Orient? Oxford? No-one from those teams strikes me as being much of a step up from league 2, and he's played against the likes of Brighton/ Wigan/ Hudds anyway and looked comfortable) so don't buy 4 either. Any of the other 3 possible but probably as simple as a dip in form and the disruption of losing Caddis who was another one who could get things moving offensively. Devera just doesn't offer that outlet (to flog the scarred and flailed corpse of that old dead horse some more). Hope he doesn't do a Jp Mcgovern, going from a previously pretty unexceptional player to an exceptional one for one season before reverting to type the next.

[Batch]

1.  Chopping and changing of defensive partner?
2.  Just going through a bad spell?

These I'd say. I don't doubt the step up a league takes adjustment, just that the Alan McC we know from last year wouldn't make the type of mistakes he has this.

Hate to say it, but this is the price of the Caddis situation. Not the fact we have lost a good player, but more the fact we have moved Devera out to right back and lost continuity (with Flint absent presumed dead to PDC). Would have liked us to get a new right back in myself.

But I'm sure he'll look his old self once Ward kicks into gear. Ward has to be a better player than we have seen, just failed to settle in yet (much like Devera did last year).

[stfcinbmth]

Still got Troy to come back in Batch. Think him and McCormack will be a good pairing

[Batch]

Still got Troy to come back in Batch. Think him and McCormack will be a good pairing

Oh yeah, forgot about him! Doh.

Arch seems to be good on the ball to me, makes space for himself. Early days, could be a good pairing though.

[horlock07]

I didn't think Ward was too bad yesterday and no one around me was slating him either which suggested he was doing too badly, however a couple of those following on twitter suggested he was having a stinker so what should I know being in the ground and that!

I think with Alan Mac that he has just lost form, defensively he looks hesitant and lets the ball bounce too much, but its the passing which makes me think its form as he seems to have lost the ability to pass the ball to a team mate. TAH may provide the calmness he needs next to him as the constant changing isnt going to help.

Equally worrying was the fact that when we were bypassing the midfield and going long, Wes kept belting it into touch!

BTW did anyone get what Paolo was gesturing to the fans when he came over at full time (and it makes me love him more when he does that - you can tell how jealous other supporters are when he does that) I got the 'blame me not the players at Preston', but I couldn't interpret yesterdays, I thought it was 'we will move up the league' but I dunno.

[stfcinbmth]

I didn't think Ward was too bad yesterday and no one around me was slating him either which suggested he was doing too badly, however a couple of those following on twitter suggested he was having a stinker so what should I know being in the ground and that!

I think with Alan Mac that he has just lost form, defensively he looks hesitant and lets the ball bounce too much, but its the passing which makes me think its form as he seems to have lost the ability to pass the ball to a team mate. TAH may provide the calmness he needs next to him as the constant changing isnt going to help.

Equally worrying was the fact that when we were bypassing the midfield and going long, Wes kept belting it into touch!

BTW did anyone get what Paolo was gesturing to the fans when he came over at full time (and it makes me love him more when he does that - you can tell how jealous other supporters are when he does that) I got the 'blame me not the players at Preston', but I couldn't interpret yesterdays, I thought it was 'we will move up the league' but I dunno.

Ward getting a slating on Twitter might have been down to the fact that he was blamed for the poor clearance. #mistaken identity

[Dozno9]

I think it was Azza who complained that Rooney was starting on the wing and has since suggested that he swap with Williams. That's exactly what happened yesterday, as has been made abundantly clear in this thread - Williams played wide left and Rooney partnered Benson.

Well, that's cleared that up then. Having not gone and looked at the formation from Orient I assumed Rooney was on the wing. I now feel that it's been clarified, quite abundantly so in fact.

[reeves4england]

Well, that's cleared that up then. Having not gone and looked at the formation from Orient I assumed Rooney was on the wing. I now feel that it's been clarified, quite abundantly so in fact.

Glad to be of service

[Hitchinred]

BTW did anyone get what Paolo was gesturing to the fans when he came over at full time (and it makes me love him more when he does that - you can tell how jealous other supporters are when he does that) I got the 'blame me not the players at Preston', but I couldn't interpret yesterdays, I thought it was 'we will move up the league' but I dunno.

I read it as we'll be heading up the league one step at a time with this result being one of those small steps.